Improvement in putting up caustic alkalies



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN A. THOMAS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 39,080, dated June 30, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN A. THOMAS, of the city and county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Putting Up Caustic Alkalies; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

The object of my invention is to enable the manufacturer of caustic alkalies to put them up in original packages of such convenient size that when a package is opened the whole of it maybe used at once in a family without loss.

The invention consists in putting the alkalies in glass, stone, or earthenware jars by pouring the alkalies while in a molten state into said jars and sealing them with a noncorrosive cement, so as effectually to exclude all atmospheric air and moisture as will be hereinafter fully explained.

Heretofore caustic alkalies have been put up in small packages .by casting them in metal molds of the size and shape it was desired to have the packages, and inclosin g the cakes so produced in Wrappers of paper or muslin, which had been rendered impervious to atmospheric air and moisture by saturating or coating them with a chemical compound. The chief objection to this mode of putting up caustic alkalies in small packages is that the wrappers are liable to get torn or broken in moving the packages about on the shelves of a store or in transporting them from place to place. In this condition, of course, the wrappers no longer protect the alkalies from atmospheric action, and consequently they are lost.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to understand and practice the same, I will proceed to describe it.

The alkalies being first melted, I pour them while in this state into glass, stone, or earthenware jars of a convenient size for domestic usesay jars of from one to five pounds capacity. Immediately on the jars being filled with the alkali I seal them with a non-corrosive cement, which is composed of the following ingredients, mixed together in equal or nearly equal proportions namely, gutta-percha or caoutchouc, gumshellac, and lard-oil, with a small quantity of some coloring-matter, such as Spanish brown or Venetian red, added.

Caustic alkalies put up in this manner may be kept on hand for domestic use or in retail stores for sale for any length of time Without danger of becoming spoiled or ofinjuring other things with which they may come in contact. The alkalies are also less liable to become injured in transporting them than when put up in paper or muslinwrappers.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A package of caustic alkali inclosed in a glass, stone, or earthenware jar, sealed with a non-corrosive cement, as and for the purpose specified.

EDWIN A. THOMAS. Witnesses A. B. PRENTISS, WILLIAMS OGLE. 

